Stage Direction

Prof. Martha Sharp

After extensive work as a singer in the USA with opera companies such as the Cleveland Opera, New York City Opera, Kansas City Lyric, Tulsa Opera and the Boston Lyric Opera, Martha Sharp was invited in 1978 to be a member of the International Zurich Opera Studio. She was also engaged as a guest soloist there where she worked with conductors Ferdinand Leitner, Nello Santi and Nikolaus Harnoncourt . In the same year she celebrated her debut with the Boston Symphony under the baton of Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein.

In 1995, she was called to the position Professor of Voice at the “Mozarteum”- Salzburg . She served as Director of the Credits Commission, and as Assistant Dean of the Vocal Department. In 1999, Prof. Sharp founded the International Opera Workshop, in Lofer, Austria. This is a Master Class for advanced students and young professional singer that still exists today.

Professor Sharp bases her work on her many years of experience on the operatic stage with directors such as Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Götz Friedrich, Nathaniel Merrill, Herbert Wernicke and her extensive work as a young singer with Boris Goldovsky. In 2013 Prof. Sharp staged the World Premier at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, of the new opera "The Cavalry Maiden" composed by Adriaan deWit / Libretto by Marianne Figl based on the memoirs of Nadezhda Durova.

Her focus is on helping opera singers find their acting talent and to execute it in a natural and logical way, while maintaining the disciplines which are necessary for the body to optimally function as a singing "intstrument". This ability has become a trademark of Martha Sharp's success as an acting singer and stage director. Since her retirement in 2013 from the Mozarteum, Prof. Sharp continues to perform as a singer and work as a stage director. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she divides her time between Salzburg and Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.

Musical Direction

Margaret Singer

Margaret Singer is a native of Oklahoma, where she received her early training. She is a graduate of Oklahoma College for Women, Chickasha, a student of Jacque Abram, the Artist-in-Residence. She continued her studies on a Fulbright grant at the Royal Academy of Music, London, earning an LRAM and ARCM, and where she was awarded several prizes, both as soloist and accompanist. The latter was judged by Gerald Moore, who wrote ". . .she was the only one who sang with the singer."

Upon returning to the United States, Margaret Singer settled in New York City, where she led an active career as coach and accompanist, eventually being invited to become an Assistant Conductor at the New York City Opera. There she worked with many fine singers, including Samuel Ramey, Catherine Malfitano, Ermanno Mauro, Maralin Niska, and Beverly Sills. This led to further engagements at the San Francisco Opera, Washington (D.C.) Opera, and Asolo Opera, Sarasota.;

Ms. Singer is passionately interested in developing young pianists as accompanists and coaches, and was head of the Apprentice Coach program at Tanglewood. Later, she established the Apprentice Program at the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera, and since 1996 has had the responsibility for training the young pianists at the Atelier Lyrique/Académie of the Paris Opera.

Since 1986, she has made her home in Germany, where she has worked with the Opera Companies of Hannover, Erfurt, and Stuttgart. She has been affiliated with the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, where she was Artistic Assistant to Violin Professor Ulf Hoelscher, and with the Mozarteum, Salzburg, where she led one of the Opera Departments for two semesters.

In the course of her career, Ms. Singer has had the opportunity to work with many leading conductors and stage directors - Leonard Bernstein (TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, Concertant, at the Berkshire Music Festival, Tanglewood,) Julius Rudel, Antonio de Almeida, John Mauceri, and Marc Soustrot; Frank Corsair, Tito Capobianco, Nicolas Joel ("La Voix Humaine" with Magda Oliveiro at the San Francisco Opera) and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.

Adriaan de Wit

The Dutch Pianist, Composer

Adriaan de Wit studied piano, conducting and harpsichord in Amsterdam and Salzburg. He is a highly respected pianist of singers like Edda Moser, Renata Tebaldi, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Martina Arroyo among others. As a soloist he played in the Salzburg Festival and performed on the most important stages in Europe.
He wrote five operas, chambermusic, about 60 songs, commercial music, music for brass-band, piano solo.

Since 1984 he teaches at the University “Mozarteum” Salzburg. Many years now he gives Masterclasses for singers and pianists on European Conservatories, Highschools und Music Universities. He lives in Holland and Austria.